Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My back yard is a mess from moles. My dog is thrilled that they are there, he thinks it's fun to track them and dig for them, so you can probably imagine what it looks like back there. Between the places Vito has tried to "get" them, and the soft hilly tracks they leave, it not only looks awful, but it's hard to mow.
My question is: has anyone tried those sonic mole repellers with any success?
There are solar models that have the solar panel built into the flat top of the spike. Not sure if that's going to be effective, as I've had solar landscape lights with that design and they never did work very well.
The other type are the ones with batteries, but I'm wondering how long the batteries would last, and how often they'd need to be changed.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,576 posts, read 81,167,557 times
Reputation: 57808
We have many problems with moles here and the sonic repellers are totally a waste of money though I have two and keep them out because they are solar. They do discourage them but they just move farther away. Depending on the size of the yard you would need as many as 50 of them. I tried stuffing dog hair (from brushing the Golden Retriever) into the tunnels and that didn't work either.
Since moles eat insects, what works best for a lawn was regular spraying of insecticide but that can also kill the worms
and potentially birds. A local master gardener recommended the formula below which did seem to move them to the neighbor's yard, but is a lot of work and has to be done about every week as they move away from it until they stop digging completely, and you have to grow mint.
Fill a large pot with water and put on stove to boil. Cut up 12 mint plant stalks (with leaves) and add to water. When it boils reduce to simmer and cook 1/2 hour. Turn off and allow to steep until cool. Strain liquid "tea" into jugs, filling half way, then top up with tap water. Whenever you see a new hole/mound in the ground, pour about a quart into it.
I dealt with severe mole infestation at my last house. I tried everything to dissuade them, kill them, harass them, etc.
In the end, the only thing that worked was an old fashioned mouse trap at the open end of one of their main line burrows. I had a half dozen traps around the yard at places where they trafficked regularly...by utility boxes, next to the downspout, along side the foundation, and next to the flower garden edge. Invariably I would catch at least one every night, and sometimes three or four in quick succession at a 'hot' location.
I looked at home remedies, traps, sprays, sonic devices, poison, moth balls, stomping their highways and encouraging the neighbors cat. No dice on any of that for me.
They are a major pain in the a$$ and there is no simple, singular solution which works well to rid your yard of the little buggers. They dug through the frozen soil of winter and the sun baked clay of summer--seemingly unimpeded.
Neighbors have tried various 'sonic' models... with no success.
Getting rid of their food source (via milky spore) worked for us.
Oh God, please no Milky Spore. What a collosal waste of time and money. Even after a few years of attempting to apply it correctly, it only kills Japanese beetle grubs, and in some areas of the country, chafer grubs are as much or more of a problem. I've been down the milky spore route -- it's a total scam.
We have had moles here and we don't even have a grub problem. The only thing that works is a trap that kills them. The good news is, they are extremely territorial and one mole can do an unbelievable amount of damage. So you might think you have a dozen of them -- but you don't. Moles even chuck their own offspring off their turf. The average suburban property might have one, two, possibly three. More likely one or two.
This is the absolute best document on getting rid of them. We used one of the spring loaded traps described here and it worked.
I dealt with severe mole infestation at my last house. I tried everything to dissuade them, kill them, harass them, etc.
In the end, the only thing that worked was an old fashioned mouse trap at the open end of one of their main line burrows. I had a half dozen traps around the yard at places where they trafficked regularly...by utility boxes, next to the downspout, along side the foundation, and next to the flower garden edge. Invariably I would catch at least one every night, and sometimes three or four in quick succession at a 'hot' location.
I looked at home remedies, traps, sprays, sonic devices, poison, moth balls, stomping their highways and encouraging the neighbors cat. No dice on any of that for me.
They are a major pain in the a$$ and there is no simple, singular solution which works well to rid your yard of the little buggers. They dug through the frozen soil of winter and the sun baked clay of summer--seemingly unimpeded.
Are you sure you have moles and not gophers. Moles are small, about 4 inches long, short tail, large flat front feet, tiny eyes and are black furred. Their fur is silky link mink. Gophers are about 6 to 8 inches long, have a medium length tail and are generally a grey brown, have eyes like a typical rodent and large buck teeth. Moles are not social critters and gophers are social critters living in colonies. Moles are generally solitary except during mating season.
Oh God, please no Milky Spore. What a collosal waste of time and money. Even after a few years of attempting to apply it correctly, it only kills Japanese beetle grubs, and in some areas of the country, chafer grubs are as much or more of a problem. I've been down the milky spore route -- it's a total scam.
Boy... I guess I am not allowed to report what has successfully worked for our yard!
NOT a waste of time or money.
NOT a scam.
But I guess your anecdotal trumps our actual experience.
Last edited by Pitt Chick; 07-26-2013 at 06:37 AM..
Boy... I guess I am not allowed to report what has successfully worked for our yard!
NOT a waste of time or money.
NOT a scam.
But I guess your anecdotal trumps our actual experience.
Yours is anectotal, mine is anecdotal. I did do the whole milky spore project when we lived in Chicago. We spent three seasons and almost $900 on it. (We wpent $300/year for three years.) Turned out we still had a terrible grub problem because the grubs were masked chafer grubs. And that is not anecdotal. That is fact. Even the people who market milky spore won't claim it kills chafer grubs, which turned out to be a far greater problem for us. So we wasted our time, we wasted our money, and now that Japanese beetles are finally appearing in Kansas City, where people always have grub problems, I am doing my best to steer them away from a product that won't do them a bit of good because we will still have the same populations of the grubs MS doesn't kill.
Your lack of success (by using the wrong product for your situation) does not negate the fact that it does work for many, including me (and many others in my area).
The primary diet of moles is earth worms so trying to kill them off is not really a good idea.
I have found that the moles will dig around (by a few inches) a sonic device, a garlic bomb, or a gravel blockage, so I have stopped fooling with those. Letting the ground completely dry works but of course that does kill off everything.
After a number of year dealing with moles I have found killing them with traps is the only sure strategy.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
